1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to electronic device manufacturing. In particular, embodiments relate to a cleaning module, such as a scrubber box, for cleaning thin discs such as semiconductor substrates, wafers, compact discs, glass substrates and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cleaning modules, sometimes referred to as scrubbers, scrubber boxes or brush boxes, are often utilized to clean semiconductor substrates at one or more stages of an electronic device manufacturing process. For example, a scrubber box may be utilized to clean a substrate after chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of the substrate. Known scrubber boxes typically use a one or more rotating brushes that are urged against a rotating substrate to thereby clean the substrate. The substrate is typically supported by and/or caused to rotate using one or more roller assemblies.
As the demand for integrated circuits continue to rise, chip manufactures have demanded semiconductor process tooling have increased throughput and more robust processing equipment. To meet such demands, apparatus and methods are being developed to better control the substrate during cleaning to maximize throughput, increase the service life of tool components, and decrease the cost of ownership.
While a number of scrubber boxes exist in the art, a need remains for a roller assembly to better support and/or control the rotation of the substrate during cleaning, as well as extend the lifetime of the roller assembly to minimize or extend replacement frequency.